Democracy has been perverted like Athenians will we reclaim it?

Greeks invented democracy

Civilization in the 21st century and onwards will be bound to glorify democracy while abhorring all other forms of governing people ever conceived by man. Democracy itself was invented by the Greeks. In the second half of the 6th century BC, Athenians fell under the tyranny of Peisistratos and his sons Hippias and Hipparchos afterwards. But they overthrew the tyranny. And to prevent Athens from becoming a Spartan puppet, Cleisthenes proposed to his fellow citizens that Athens undergo a revolution: where all citizens share in political power, regardless of status: that Athens becomes a "democracy." The advent of the democracy cured many of the ills of Athens and led to a 'golden age' for the Athenians. And so democracy developed out of fear of being ruled by a tyrant or an autocracy. The antiquity of civil government can be traced to Nimrod who chose to control his fellow men by establishing a monarchy by sheer might. Hitherto man didn’t concern himself with what his fellow man was doing. And had no interest in controlling him.

Man has always tried to control fellow man

And so afterwards man has always tried to control others and out of fear of being controlled by their fellow man he has always tried to assert that all are born free and equal. Democracy therefore ended up as the best form of government that seeks to preserve the truth that all human beings are sovereigns whose conscience is sacrosanct and should not be violated. On this count then democracy upholds this principle that whoever governs me should only do so under my permission and should do it on my behalf and in a way that I would approve that the governing be done. This is a principle brought alive by Christianity and mercilessly trampled upon by atheistic-pagan-heathenistic societies.

Autocracy masquerading as democracy

This ideal is not however the case. This because as we have seen we have emergence of a few influential citizens who rule opinion, determine who rules and forms a cartel which has to admit you before you can be elected or influence policy. It is something akin to a rule by an autocracy masquerading as democrats. Due to their hold on the economic purse of the country they also pass as an oligarchy. And since they tend to pass it to their progenies it is more or less a hereditary oligarchy.This lot is an entrenched interest party that will fight tooth and nail to retain its hold onto power and strategic positions of influence for economic interests. Their hold onto power however becomes a threat to democracy when they block those who are not-so privileged from ever ascending to positions of influence. This practically negates the spirit of democracy which is the taking political power to all citizens to share in it.

An elected plutocracy

It is real all-over the world, the democratic decision making which should be made by all citizens is now invested with a few elected representatives who don’t necessarily consult the citizens but serve the interests of lobbyists and corporate business interests. A new word corporotocracy has been coined to refer to the heinous economic crimes that the big business folks are subjecting to the underprivileged citizens. In other words it becomes an elected plutocracy.

The masses are a bewildered herd

They use the media as a necessary tool for the functioning of the system. They assume that the masses are a bewildered herd that needs to be guided by the ruling class. They assume that they are mere spectators and influence the public opinion through the media to manufacture the public consent without coercing it. Edward Bernays hinted to this when he said the masses need to be manipulated by an invisible government to insure the survival of democracy. Their tool for control is largely through propaganda. They assume that men are ignorant and stupid who cannot be their best judges for their own interests.

They have made democracy mobocracy

All this has made the twenty first century democracy to become mobocracy this is the tyranny of the masses while in a fine democracy the majority would have their way and a minority their say, the minority’s rights are never respected but instead their views being considered they are vilified and anathematized and no rational consideration to their opinions is given they are lumped as estranged and ostracized. The painful thing is that it is an open secret that the majority opinion is not necessarily right. More often than not it is a line arrived at through at times sheer demagoguery and shameless grandstanding and no objective reasoning at all. Once manufactured it is fed through a corrupt media always available to be used by the mighty to stealthily propagate pernicious propaganda for the sheer benefit of the banal elites.

Stopping the subtle dictatorship

Their survival tactic while in this is to hinder a development of the emancipated individuals so they are never capable of making rational decisions. Whatever new concept that they want to introduce to the public is released slowly in bits in a process called desensitization until we accept it and then they have won us. The only way to stop their subtle dictatorship is by being awake and identifying their tactics and guarding our independence to self determine our affairs without their manipulative tendencies. Like the Athenians will we reclaim our democracy?